


Mythical Bullshit

by UnapologeticallyMeatwad



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Animal Crossing References, COVID-19, Complicated Relationships, Coronavirus, Empty Movement Discord Monthly Writing Prompt, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:55:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24235396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnapologeticallyMeatwad/pseuds/UnapologeticallyMeatwad
Summary: Anthy travels the world searching for Utena. After two years, she gives up. When the third year passes, she tries again and immediately, COVID-19 hits. What a joke. Furthering the possibility that Anthy's life is some sort of divine prank, she finds Utena by chance via local wireless play in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Relationships: Himemiya Anthy/Tenjou Utena
Comments: 5
Kudos: 41





	Mythical Bullshit

**Author's Note:**

> So this is based off of a prompt from the Empty Movement Discord server. The actual prompt is "Animal Crossing AU where Akio is the mayor welcoming Utena to the new town, and all the duelists are animals." Which is hilarious, but I've never done Utena fic so I wanted to keep it serious. So instead here's a fic where Anthy accidentally finds Utena through local wireless play in Animal Crossing.

Anthy searches for Utena for years. The first year, she was all romantic about it, so sure in herself that she would find her best friend — _or something more._ That's a conversation and a half, but if Anthy can't even find Utena it hardly matters that Anthy wants her. God, even if Anthy finds her, it might not work out; there's so much Anthy doesn't know. Such as if Utena remembers her, if Utena even looks the same. If Utena even _likes_ her... Yikes, that's a thought.

It doesn't matter; Anthy doesn't find Utena in that first year anyways, even though she moved so many times around the world to find her.

The second year, Anthy is still determined but she sometimes forgets herself. Days pass by without her thinking of Utena at all and she doesn't change locations nearly as often. The most revealing moment of the year is when Anthy sees a head of pink hair in New York that definitely isn't Utena, but it makes Anthy think: " _Ah, right, I'm supposed to be actively looking for her… oops._ "

The third year Anthy gives up.

The fourth year Anthy tries again —

— and then as some sort of divine prank or tragic comedy, COVID-19 hits.

All of a sudden, you're not allowed to gather in large places, anything that can be done remotely must be done remotely, and occasionally someone you know dies and you're not allowed to go to the funeral. Though the last one doesn't affect Anthy because her only friend is ChuChu, who probably can't catch COVID.

This is how Anthy gives up on Utena, and goes from Rose Bride to broke liberal arts student in Boston.

Months pass by and Anthy can't take it anymore. She wants friends so badly, even if they aren't Utena, and God how she just wants to be _touched_. It could be anything, a slap, a kiss, maybe even a sword pull from her chest, she just needs _something._

* * *

When Anthy receives her stimulus check she immediately caves in and buys a Nintendo Switch along with a copy of _Animal Crossing: New Horizons._ She names herself Anthy and calls her town Ohtori, more out of name recognition than nostalgia for that horrible school. The townies talk to her like they're part of a computer simulation. So she doesn't talk to them, because that's much too like Ohtori.

She spends most of her time gardening and crafting pretty orchards of fruit trees. But after about a month of that, she becomes so bored once again… so she chances the airport feature.

Anthy has no friends, therefore no Friend Codes, so she travels through local wireless play. This is all she has left for _travel_.

Then lucky be a lady tonight Anthy travels to an island called Revolution, cared for by a player named _Utena_.

Anthy laughs at the screen because she must be losing her mind. But hey, why not have hope? Her heart is pounding and she hopes for the relief of a pink haired girl waiting for her at the pier. But no one is waiting for her. So Anthy runs through the island and eventually sees a silhouette in the far distance running around. _Of course Utena didn't greet her_.

Anthy gets lost on Utena's bridgeless island and eventually finds her fishing by the shore. Anthy approaches her, slowly taking in the fact that Utena made a get-up for herself that looks like her duelist outfit.

Utena doesn't notice Anthy and continues fishing.

...So awkward! Agh!

Utena catches a sea bass so Anthy uses her Reactions to Laugh at Utena. Haha.

Then Utena notices Anthy. There is this long stretch of time where the two characters just stare at each other.

Anthy hopes that Utena will do something like use the Shocked reaction, that would be _so her_.

But Utena does nothing, just stands there, like the actual player walked away from her controller. Confused, and possibly hurt, Anthy tries using the speech command and types in:

> Utena?

A precious second passes by and then Anthy is kicked out of the island, something to do with Utena disconnecting from the server.

...oh my God, that must have been her though! Right?

But why did Utena leave? Of course Utena remembers her, maybe she's hurt but… agh! If she connected through local wireless then she must live in Boston too! ...Utena, noooooo _why_?!

Utena probably remembers and likely wants nothing to do with Anthy. She died for Anthy, for Revolution, and now she's probably as poor as Anthy, as lonely as Anthy, and traumatized from a chance encounter in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Desperate, and possibly even spiteful, Anthy makes a "Best Friends" request to Utena. That's the best she can do for now, aside from walking through the streets of Boston in her cotton mask and scream Utena's name until she comes out.

A day later… Utena accepts the Friend Request, and a week later Anthy visits her island again.

This time Utena stands at the pier, her character model the same as before. Before Anthy can 'say' anything, a text bubble pops up that says:

> Let's take it slow.

A pause. Utena continues:

> No talking.

Oh brother. But playing Animal Crossing without any kind of communication is so — so — _Utena_.

They play Animal Crossing together, peacefully at that. It's nothing like real life and with every game they play on Utena's island, it just makes Anthy's heart ache more and more.

So Anthy writes Utena a letter. It sort of breaks the rules they had,

> Hi. I know you don't want to talk, so don't read this out of obligation — only read it if you're ready to have this conversation.
> 
> I left Ohtori four years ago to find you. I think that without us the school is fading away, but that's okay. Akio deserves worse, but this will have to do for now.
> 
> I'm writing to you because this is hurting me. If you don't want to go any farther than what we have now — I understand you want to move slow but I need to move fast — I don't want to play with you again if it stays like this.
> 
> Please let me know what you think.
> 
> Anthy.

Anthy winces when she sends it; she probably just messed everything up all over again.

But within the day, Utena writes back.

> I want to see you. I don't know where you are in Boston, but I'm in Jamaica Plains. I'm not working today, so visit my town ASAP and we can talk through the stupid slow chat feautre.

Anthy does so. It's weird going from complete radio silence to an onslaught of text boxes.

> I live in Jamaica Plains 2.
> 
> Wow, that's so weird. So, there's this

Anthy frowns. Seconds go by without an answer. _So there's this_ what? She opens her chat and types in a singular _?_ but it's quickly omitted by Utena's next slew of messages.

> god fuck they couldn't have made these text boxes any
> 
> shorter huh? Stupid.
> 
> There is an Abandoned Zoo in Franklin Park.
> 
> U close to there?

Anthy sighs. How on Earth do they live so close?

> Yes.
> 
> Ok, meet me there at 8
> 
> 8...pm tonite? Or 8am tomorrow morn.
> 
> Anthy
> 
> wut?
> 
> u know what I meant.
> 
> *smug react*
> 
> Ur the worst.

Anthy smirks all the while; she likes giving Utena a hard time like this. She bets Utena likes it too.

Later that night, they meet in person. They both show up early.

* * *

The abandoned zoo is made mostly of stone — twin guardian lions guard the entrance, their sculpted eyes frighteningly realistic. There are three cages, where Anthy can assume animals used to be trapped, which makes her sad. There's no cobblestone flooring to this place, just dirt. As such, beer cans and cigarette butts smear the brown overlay with flashes of white and blue.

Really — it's not that interesting.

Anthy is just trying to distract herself from staring at her friend.

Utena sits on a stone ledge in dirty skinny jeans and a white denim jacket. Her hair is pink as her Animal Crossing avatar's, cropped up past her neck. Her knees press together, her arms wedged up between two rusted iron bars. She stares at Anthy expressionlessly, her body so rigid.

Beyond the cloth mask over her mouth, Anthy hopes Utena is smiling. But if she is, that smile isn't reaching her eyes. Deep gray crevasses line her face.

It reminds Anthy of the time she sketched Utena in the nude. Utena had sat in the same sort of straight-limbed way, though Anthy also knows she never took drawing classes at Ohtori. She wonders if Utena remembers. Is that memory real?

"Himemiya," Utena whispers, and Anthy gets closer. Too close apparently, Utena releases one of the iron bars and extends a hand to Anthy only to press it flat to the air. "Six feet."

Anthy bites her lip. Right, social distancing. But… "You shouldn't be touching those bars then, they might make you sick."

Ugh, already on the offense. Why is that her gut instinct now — to argue? What is the purpose in that?

A slight crinkle at the lower left of Utena's mask. Anthy hopes it's because Utena is smirking at her, at least somewhat amused by Anthy the Aggressor.

Utena nods towards the ground and gently kicks at a tube of disinfectant wipes. "Wiped down the ones next to me — six feet from me, I mean — if you want to… um…"

"I would like that," Anthy sighs, sliding into place and looking up to the moon. It's easier this way. "I don't remember you being so stuttery."

Anthy can feel Utena look over to her, her cheeks got hot.

"Getting stabbed by ten thousand swords can do that to you," Utena says, and before the moment even has a chance to linger, she interrupts herself. "Sorry, that's not funny."

"It's a joke?" Anthy raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, for a trauma victim."

Oof.

"You alright?" Utena asks. "I… I don't know what happened after the swords. I just kinda woke up here, well not _here_ , but you know."

Oh, Anthy knows. "I always wanted to ask someone else from Ohtori… was your hair a different color when you woke up? I had to dye mine back to purple…"

She feels so stupid saying that, especially the way she blubbers around the consonants in _pur-ple_. What is she even talking about?

Thankfully, Utena laughs. "Yes, I was blonde if you can believe it. Hard to imagine that the first thing I noticed on Earth was that people aren't born with pink hair. Bo-ring."

Anthy laughs too. It's funny.

Utena cuts in fast, "But you're ignoring my question."

"I left," Anthy shrugs. "There isn't much to say. Within a day, I went to Akio's office and told him I'm… leaving."

"Did he try to stop you?" Utena asks, and then by her own bad habit, interrupts herself again. "Sorry, you don't have to — "

"He was speechless," Anthy says, she needs to make sure Utena doesn't finish these second guesses of hers. She wants her to be stronger than that, like the Utena that stood up to Akio.

"Wow," Utena says, an echo of a chuckle in her sigh. "That's pretty badass, Anthy. I'm proud of you."

Anthy feels her cheeks get hotter; it makes her mask catch all this sweat she wishes she wouldn't retain. "I guess so… um, when we played _Animal Crossing_ why did you disconnect from the server when you saw me?"

" _That's_ what you want to talk about?"

Anthy hears sneakers scuff at the dirt; she looks back to her knees, she doesn't want to look at Utena right now. It makes her heart ache and long for… a better conversation.

"Anthy, I may not have left Ohtori willingly," Utena says, voice harsher than she probably intends. "But that doesn't mean I resent this place, I hate Ohtori and I _like_ it here."

Anthy bites her lip and meets Utena's sparkling blue eyes finally and is shocked to see Utena standing mere inches from her. Anthy's eyes go wide and apparently that's enough to make Utena realize the faux pas. She shifts back hurriedly. "Sorry, social distancing and — "

"No," Anthy interrupts. "Just scared of you."

Utena frowns. "Oh." Her arm dives to her neck, thumb pushing up the back of her hair, flopping some of it over itself. "I guess I'm scared of you, too. Do you hate me?"

"No?" Anthy resists the temptation to cackle. "Why would I have played _Animal Crossing_ with you?"

"You wanted my oranges," Utena shrugs.

Ooh, that makes Anthy mad. She'd kick up dirt if the ground weren't so flat.

"Utena, I love you."

"Uh oh," Utena smiles. "Well, um, I'm not picking out curtains yet or anything, Himemiya."

Anthy rolls her eyes. "You pretty much said that the first night you had me — "

Utena's blush is very cute with the pink locks. " — I — I — I didn't h-have you, that first night was different!"

" — well maybe it would've been easier if you just did as I asked."

Utena's eyes send off sparks. "What? _Fuck you and hand you off to the next duelist?_ That's _easier_ to you, Anthy?"

Anthy grits her teeth. "Yes."

Utena almost growls back, "Well if you want to be my friend, I'm just gonna keep giving you what you consider to be a hard time then, because I will _never_ disrespect you like that. I love you."

Anthy's eyes narrow; she hates to be so frustrated at such a wonderful admission, so she at least allows herself to celebrate that moment of joy and spits back, "Yeah, I love you too."

Utena's resulting grin flashes her teeth. "Hell yeah."

"Yeah, Hell yeah, whatever," Anthy kicks the ground, shaking her head. "You like me, I like you, but it doesn't feel healthy for us to be around each other."

Utena raises an eyebrow. "Because of the pandemic?"

"Because of what happened you asshole," Anthy smirks, "I'm smirking behind the mask, can you tell?"

Utena groans and walks away, hands in her pockets. "You are not subtle, if that's what you're driving at. Anyways… God damn, I can't believe we both live in Boston."

"Coincidence," Anthy says.

"I know," Utena sighs. "You want to move in together?"

All of that heat in Anthy's cheeks goes cold. "Um."

"I mean, we've lived together before, and I like you more than my asshole, dipshit room mate who owes me five hundred dollars."

Anthy gets up and stands across Utena. She remembers dancing with her once, dancing with a short haired Utena while a long haired Utena danced directly below her. Utena with long hair makes Anthy nostalgic, but it's going to be a long time before this butch haircut grows back into that. Besides, Utena seems happier with short hair.

"That's fast, isn't it?" Anthy sighs.

"Y-yeah," Utena's eyes swing back down to her knees.

"I mean — I want to go fast, I want to pick up where we left off," Anthy admits. "But is going fast what you want?"

Utena frowns, and puts it bluntly, "It's either go fast or I skip town and we never talk again. You hurt me a lot, Anthy."

Anthy feels bad because Utena didn't really hurt Anthy all too much, so it's all unbalanced. But Anthy knows what she did that was wrong. "I betrayed you at the duel of Revolution," she says, feeling that it needs to be stated out loud.

Utena winces and looks away. "No."

What?

…

Wait, no, Anthy thought that, but she didn't say it just yet. "What?" Ah, there it is.

Utena's cheeks go pink. "This makes me sound like an asshole, but it was when I saved you from jumping off a building. Do you know how worthless it makes someone to feel to watch their best friend throw their life away like that?"

Anthy sighs, she almost forgot she tried to kill herself. It's been so long since then and fortunately, she's learned how to manage it all through therapy.

"I know it's selfish of me to feel that way," Utena crosses her arms. "I'm making it about me."

"Well, it was never about you," Anthy says simply, then quickly corrects herself because that sounds mean. "As in — it was always about me, everyone always wanted me and I let it happen… it made you fight and — and — "

" — turn into a car."

"What?"

Utena blinks. "I dunno. But I turned into a car for you once."

Anthy feels like she's supposed to laugh because — what the fuck, Utena didn't turn into a car, people don't turn into cars… but… Anthy is pretty sure Utena's not fucking with her, and she kinda remembers a random car wash shooting out of a field of flowers. "Did we see each other after Ohtori?"

"Ohtori Tier 2?" Utena suggests. "I dunno. It's fuzzy, I have dreams sometimes of a world where you were the one who found _me_ at Ohtori."

Anthy tries to remember. "No, you saved me from Saijoini, _again._ "

"Well, you were very pushy that time around," Utena blushes again. "The life drawings? I don't want to get into it…"

"Oh shit."

"...but clearly we're connected on some… mythical bullshit level and um — Anthy," Utena almost gasps for breath. "What I'm trying to say is I love you and I don't want the mythical bullshit to be what keeps us together. I want it to be because we choose each other right here and right now." She stops again to catch that breath. "Even though we have issues, we can make it work. Will you join me?"

Anthy is kind of speechless, not one to be swooned, it's odd to just sit there, staring at this girl who has an intensity in her eyes unlike anything else. Anthy nods. "You movin' in with me or…"

"Yeah, that," Utena smiles, eyes beginning to shine, tears catching in the moonlight. "My asshole roommate who I will not name needs to die alone in my shitty apartment. Can I move in tomorrow?"

"That's fast," Anthy says.

"Rent's due in two days," Utena shrugs. "That's how he pays me back."

Anthy grins, things start to feel normal again. "Utena, is this about me or just your shitty revenge on your shit room mate?"

Utena laughs, and wipes away the rest of her tears before looking back at Anthy with a crinkly smile. "Himemiya — _it's always been about you_ , and hey, it definitely wasn't healthy most days, but we'll make it work. And let's hope my shitty revenge against my asshole room mate is the last unhealthy thing I'll ever do."

**Author's Note:**

> The abandoned zoo in Boston is real!  
> [ Check it out if you live in Boston. ](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Old+Bear+Dens/@42.3114736,-71.0966304,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e37bd782eb3aa9:0x94c045055a1dc3e8!8m2!3d42.3114736!4d-71.0944417)  
> This is my first Utena fic and I definitely want to do more, this was fun. : ) Thanks for reading.


End file.
